Sadistic personality disorder

Sadistic personality disorder
Illustration showing the pleasure that sadistic people often have from hurting someone
Specialty	Psychiatry, clinical psychology
Symptoms	Cruelty, manipulation using fear, preoccupation with violence
Complications	Substance use disorder, marital, occupational and legal difficulties
Usual onset	Adolescence
Causes	Unclear
Risk factors	Childhood abuse
Diagnostic method	Based on symptoms
Differential diagnosis	Antisocial personality disorder and Sexual sadism disorder

Sadistic personality disorder is an obsolete term for a proposed personality disorder defined by a pervasive pattern of sadistic and cruel behavior. People who fitted this diagnosis were thought to have a desire to control others and to have accomplished this through use of physical or emotional violence. The diagnosis proposal appeared in the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R),^[1] however it was never put to use in clinical settings and later versions of the DSM (DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR, and DSM-5) had it removed. Among other reasons, psychiatrists believed it would be used to legally excuse sadistic behavior.